‘TELL No One,” the second feature by director Guil laume Canet, is a thriller based on an American novel of the same name, but with the story moved to France.

It opens with a seemingly happy couple skinny-dipping in the moonlight. They have a minor quarrel, after which the wife, Margot, is brutally murdered and herhusband, Alex, is beaten.

Fast-forward eight years. More bodies are uncovered at the site of the earlier, unsolved murder. Alex, a pediatrician, comes under suspicion.

To further cloud matters, Alex receives an e-mail that suggests Margot is still alive. There follows a flawed take on Alfred Hitchcock’s oft-used “wrong man” theme.

The cast, which includes Francois Cluzet as Alex and Marie-Josée Croze as Margot, as well as Kristin Scott Thomas, Nathalie Baye and the distinguished Jean Rochefort, is excellent; and there’s a pulse-raising chase.

But the story becomes so convoluted and contrived (pursued by police, Alex just happens to run into a patient’s father, who owes the doctor a big favor) that much of the tension dissipates.

In French, with English subtitles. Running time: 125 minutes. Not rated (nudity, violence). At the Sunshine and the Cinemas 1, 2, 3.